Open Schooling, a system of education that teaches to a broad range of learners, and has been very successful in Africa and the Caribbean, is being considered in Tonga during a three days forum this week.

The forum on Open Schooling was officially opened by Tonga's Minister of Education, Hon. Dr 'Ana Taufe'ulungaki at the University of the South Pacific Tonga Campus on November 15.

Open Schooling, does not dictate student ages, prerequisites, content of courses or the number of courses in which learners must enroll, and has been described as a system that meets the needs of a broad range of learners. It helps young people who have missed out on schooling in their childhood, to pursue a secondary education without having to attend classes with much younger children. Young mothers can learn at home and attend tutorials when necessary, and working adults can study while continuing to earn a living.

Open Schooling has been promoted by the Commonwealth of Learning, in Commonwealth countries, and Open School pilot programs have been launched in Tonga, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands. These programs will be reviewed during this week's meeting in Tonga.

The Commonwealth of Learning is an inter-governmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government in the late 1980s to encourage the development of open learning and distant education.

Mrs Frances Ferreira from the Commonwealth of Learning and Open Schooling was in Tonga for the Forum, and spoke of successful Open School programs in Africa and the Caribbean. She said that in her own country, Namibia, the government during the past 20 years had built about 300 secondary schools and trained qualified teachers, but statistics released in June showed that 48 percent of those who enrolled for the end of the year final exam came from Open Schools.

In Namibia, Open Schools are independent of government, but they are answerable to government.

Frances said that Open Schools in Africa and in the Caribbean had been found to offer solutions for a shortage of trained teachers.

A teacher at the USP Tonga Campus, Heti Veikune, said that an open schooling pilot program was launched at the centre about a month ago. About 40 students had enrolled and they were all from Form 5 at Tonga College. She said that they were students who had either dropped out after Form 5, or were struggling with the classwork. The prime objective of the program was to help these students get back to class and to complete their secondary education.

The forum is attended by education administrators from the Pacific islands region.